Growth & Development

A public information meeting to discuss the Chapel Hill 2020 Draft Comprehensive Plan will be held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 19, in the Council Chamber of Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The Planning Board will meet directly following the Chapel Hill 2020 meeting.

The purpose of the public information session is to share information about how the draft plan is being revised to reflect community comment and the Planning Board's recommended revisions (http://bit.ly/MIuTDc).

The visioning plan will be considered for possible adoption by the Town Council on June 25. For those unable to attend Tuesday's meeting, it will be aired on Chapel Hill TV-18 and provided later on streaming video at www.townofchapelhill.org/councilvideo.

The 2020 plan will be an overall policy document, balancing the many voices and ideas about our community's future. Previous drafts of the plan are available at www.2020buzz.org. This document, the vision and framework for the Town's future, will be followed by implementation - making the vision into reality.

Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and the Town Council have thanked all dedicated participants for their ideas, work and involvement in the CH 2020 Plan. View the documentary video of the process - http://vimeo.com/43250910 

The Chapel Hill 2020 process began with brainstorming and visioning. The first community meeting was held in September 2011 at East Chapel Hill High School and drew 475 people, people who wanted to have a stake in the future of Chapel Hill. Eventually, the community identified six theme groups, and the stakeholders got to work. The theme groups are Good Place and New Spaces, Town and Gown, Getting Around, Community Prosperity and Engagement, A Place for Everyone and Nurturing Our Community.

Chapel Hill 2020 has about 20 dedicated theme group co-chairs, who have attended countless community meetings, provided thoughtful input, and moderated energetic group discussions. They are Dave Godschalk, Paige Zinn, Rick Igou, Chris Derby, Brian Russell, Roger Waldon, Anita Badrock, Brian Curran, Maria Palmer, Jan Bolick, Marlene Rifkin, Gary Saleeby, Fred Black, Nathan Huening, Eleanor Murray, Delores Bailey, Kristen Hiemstra and Jonathan Howes. Read more about them: http://www.townofchapelhill.org/index.aspx?page=1825 

Throughout the process, the Chapel Hill 2020 outreach team visited with all segments of the community and bringing their ideas, comments, needs and inspirations back to the ongoing process. These community comments were folded into the process to create the plan.

For more information about Chapel Hill 2020, visit www.chapelhill2020.org or www.2020buzz.org or contact compplan@townofchapelhill.org

A public information meeting on the Carolina North Development Agreement will be held at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, May 22, in the Council Chambers of Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

A development agreement for UNC-Chapel Hill's Carolina North Campus was approved in June 2009. It contains guidelines and standards for the development of the first 3 million square feet of a mixed-use research and academic campus on 133 acres. Planning for the first project, the Collaborative Science Building is under way. The early development at Carolina North will be accessed from Estes Drive Extension and a re-aligned Airport Drive.

The agreement also contains guidelines for the rest of the property that will not be developed in the near future.

The development agreement requires that the Town and University do a periodic assessment of the overall effectiveness of the development agreement. This first assessment must be completed within three years of the agreement, which is June 30, 2012. Town and University staff have prepared the assessment, and it is available at www.townofchapelhill.org/carolinanorth. 

Town Manager Roger L. Stancil will review the assessment and public input before reporting to the Town Council on his review of the development agreement and its requirements.

Public input is welcome. Comments also may be made at the May 22 meeting or emailed to carolinanorth@townofchapelhill.org. Detailed information is available online at http://www.townofchapelhill.org/index.aspx?page=900 and http://carolinanorth.unc.edu/. To be added to a mailing list to receive regular updates about the Carolina North development agreement, please contact info@townofchapelhill.org.